Gaia Dreams (Gaiaverse Book 1) (23 page)

"Lisanne," Andy began. "What's going on? I think
we need to pull off somewhere and talk."

"No," she said. "We don't have time--well, okay,
maybe we have a little bit of time. Where the heck are we right now?

"Coming up on the exit for Winona - 55
intersects with Highway 82 up ahead...look, let's get off at that exit."

"Okay," said Lisanne. "I think I need some
coffee, and you're right - we most definitely need to talk about what just
happened."

She switched off her cell phone and said
quietly, "Now Merlin, I don't suppose I have to yell and scream about what just
happened because you can read my thoughts, right? Well, be sure and read all of
them very carefully right now!"

The cat flattened his ears and hissed at her and
then turned his head away to look at the window. Humans were a trial to deal
with, he thought miserably. Watching the land speed by, he was still fairly
satisfied with himself. His goal had been accomplished, the door to Lisanne's
mind had been opened, and communication between them would become easier and
easier with time and a modicum of effort on his part. He thought for a moment
and then admitted to himself that it would most likely take more than a little
effort on his side of the equation and growled low in this throat. Lisanne was
a full plateful of trouble to deal with, make no mistake. She had her own ideas
about things and he couldn't make assumptions that she would just continue to
blindly follow him. But, he argued with himself that had been why he jumped
ahead to forcing the link between their minds. To get her to see his logic
sooner rather than later. If she fought him at every turn, they might not make
it, might not survive the disasters that lay ahead on their trip. He needed her
brain working with his, not against.

Merlin licked his paw and washed his face,
preparing for the visit with Andy and Waldo. If he had been human, he would
have sighed resignedly. He wished he could get another sense of the cat
presence he felt briefly before, the one who lived where they were going. Now
that one would have known how to deal with Lisanne! He seemed wise and older
than Merlin. But the presence had been felt for only a few moments as it
imparted vital information, and then it was gone...and now Merlin was on his own...with
a dog of all things and a disbelieving man! Although, the dog had turned out to
be not so bad, even if he was gigantic and wanting to make friends so much that
he had actually slobbered all over Merlin when they first met! Of course, the
cat had suffered stoically in silence, not letting on how inappropriate he
thought this behavior was. And after a while the dog settled down and even
seemed to pick up on how he should be acting. The things he was having to do to
support the cause! Wait now, he thought in surprise...that was interesting...what
cause? Just what cause were they all fighting for, working for, working toward?
Merlin prided himself on knowing his own mind, on keeping well-ordered thought
processes (unlike humans), and on focusing his thoughts (unlike dogs). This was
a slip, an unknown...support the cause...interesting! He'd have to think about just
where that thought had come from and what it meant.

"Merlin!"

He started and realized Lisanne had been calling
to him. Amazing! He'd actually been lost in his thoughts!

"Well, are you coming or not?"

He looked out the window and saw they were
parked at a diner and that Lisanne was motioning for him to come with her to
Andy's car. Gathering himself and his wayward thoughts together, he leaped from
the car into her arms, thinking,
you're not going anywhere without me,
Lisanne
.

Lisanne's eyes widened a bit and she said, "I
heard that! Or rather, I knew it, I knew you said it...oh, I don't know how to
describe it...." She just looked hard at him for a moment and then said, "No, I
don't suppose I'm going anywhere without you, either."

Slamming the door to the car, she marched over
to Andy's, and Merlin could tell she was feeling at once pleased with herself
for hearing him while also feeling somewhat scared by the whole experience. It
was a start, he thought pragmatically.

Somewhere over the Southern States

Maria's cell phone rang, waking her from a sound
sleep. "Hello?" she said sleepily.

"Maria? Its Margaret," said the voice on the
other end. Maria woke up quickly.

"What's wrong now?" Maria said alertly.

"Wrong? Oh, nothing's wrong, exactly, it's just
that I need for your plane to stop outside Houston at a small airport there to
pick up some people who were stranded...I'm afraid you all are going to be a bit
crowded for the rest of the trip."

"Well, uh, sure. No problem. It's your plane
after all. Besides, if we can save some people, I'm all for it." Maria said
this last with some bitterness.

Margaret said nothing for a moment, and then
spoke calmly, "I do understand your feelings, more than you can possibly know.
It's a horrible thing to know what will happen and be helpless to stop it,
helpless to save people. But you are right. This side trip of yours will save
people and it's necessary. I do need to warn you, though, that it's going to be
a bumpy ride because the winds have picked up there, so this won't be easy."

Maria berated herself mentally for her
thoughtlessness. Of all of them, Margaret knew what it felt like to see what
was coming and be unable to save everyone. "Yes, all right," Maria rallied, "we'll
be ready for our new passengers." She clicked off the phone and explained the
details to Zack. Phoebe, thankfully, remained unconscious.

Exit at intersection of Highways 55 North and
82 West, Mississippi

"Okay, so what you're telling me is that you
went into some kind of trance-like state and Merlin was in your mind and he
talked to you?" Andy said, his questioning tone rising in scale.

"Not quite like that, no. Look, I can't really
explain it to you. I had been complaining to him that there had to be a better
way to communicate and he said, on the computer, that there was--basically,
from what I understand it's like a door opening in your mind, and once that
door is opened, a link can be made between the animal and you. Then it's like
you just 'know' what they are saying. You don't exactly hear it like words, but
you know it. Does that make sense?" Lisanne said, cocking her head to one side.

Andy looked at her shiny, black cropped hair
still sticking out in all directions. The heavy mascara was long gone after the
tears of the day, and her eyes were luminous in the neon lights of the diner,
shining in the night. Her rosy red lips were curved in an anxious smile and he
thought fleetingly that he'd never seen more kissable lips when he saw them
speaking again, and heard, "Hello? Andy? Are you even listening to me? If I'm
going to take the time to explain this stuff to you, the least you could do is
pay attention!"

He saw that the smile had become a frown and
quickly said, "No, no, I was listening. It makes no sense at all."

"What?" She glowered at him.

He just smiled back at her bemused. "But I
believe you, if that's any consolation," he said.

She stopped short and then said, "Oh. Well.
Well, that's different, then," and sat back, mollified.

As she sipped her coffee latte, he asked, "So
what did you learn about why we're going to Memphis? What's there for us?"

Turning to face him again, Lisanne said
excitedly, "That's the big news. We have to change course. Merlin thinks
Memphis traffic could be too heavy-duty, or something like that. I don't
understand exactly what's going to be happening there. But he thinks we should
go ahead and cross the Mississippi River at Chicot, Arkansas. And that means,
we should take 82 West, which means we take a left here at this exit."

Andy frowned. "But I thought we were supposed to
be heading north to get out of the way of the storm."

"Yeah, well, so did I and we are, but we maybe
are okay on that for now. The bigger news is that the Mississippi is going to
flood big time. So we want to be on the other side. Because wherever we are
going to end up is on that side," Lisanne said triumphantly.

"Now just hold on," Andy began. "What do you
mean, where we will end up? Just what are we doing? I've left my job, my house,
everything--all on the say-so of your cat! I've followed you blindly all over
the place. I have my dog, my car and the clothes on my back and that's it! I'm
not prepared for a long trip. I think I deserve more explanation than this,
don't you?" By the time he was finished, Andy's voice had risen until he was
almost yelling.

Lisanne was startled by Andy's outburst. He had
seemed so calm and steady up to now, almost placid. She might have to re-think
this guy. He had some feelings inside there after all. She looked at Merlin and
he stared at her for a minute and then nodded.

"Okay, okay, settle down," she said. "I know
this is bizarre. And I know it's not fair that it got sprung on you with no
warning. I didn't get much warning either, but at least I got to bring some of
my stuff with me. The problem is," and here her voice became sympathetic and
gentler, "your house probably isn't there anymore. Your clothes,
possessions--they're all gone by now. Because you followed us blindly, you and
Waldo are still alive--and that's a good thing. We're all caught up in
something bigger than any of us and we don't know where it's going to end up.
But we're going to try and survive and maybe we'll get some answers eventually.
By some miracle, you and I, and maybe other people out there, have some
connection to these animals so we are getting warnings of these--these--I don't
know what to call them--these dire things that are happening. Because we have
the warnings we can get ourselves to safety. And the other thing we know is
that there is some place the animals seem to be drawn to, seem to pushing us to
go to, so that is probably where we should go. My guess is that if we go there
we will get more answers." She stopped talking and reached out a hand to him,
tentatively.

Andy saw her hand outstretched, and thought
irrelevantly that he'd never seen anyone wear dark purple nail polish before.
He gingerly touched her hand then grasped it tightly and held on as if for dear
life.

"I'm scared by all this, Lisanne," he said
simply.

She gave a small laugh and said, "If you
weren't, I'd think you were really nuts!" She paused for a moment and then
said, "I'm scared, too, Andy. I'm scared too."

Airfield outside Houston, Texas

After the scariest landing she'd ever
experienced, Maria wanted nothing more than to get off the ground again as soon
as possible. One look out the window convinced her that Houston was the last
place she wanted to be. Wind and rains lashed the tarmac and she was concerned
they wouldn't be able to take off with all the debris flying around.

The door opened and the howling noises from
outside entered the interior as their new passengers hustled on board. With
everyone scrambling to get seated and the steward hurrying to buckle people in
and the pilot urging haste, Maria didn't have time to determine what was so
special about these people until they took off. Even then, they were all so
drenched she didn't at first recognize the Mayor of Houston and wouldn't have
then until she saw Alan Beakman. His imposing presence could not be mistaken.
Maria had interviewed Dusty Dubois in her first year as mayor and met Alan
then, as well. She admired the feisty mayor and was not surprised to see that
she had made it out of Houston. Looking around the rest of the mayor's
entourage, she guessed that a few were other city officials. One looked like a
sheriff's deputy and that man there...oh, no, thought Maria, that can't be...but,
yes, the profile could be none other than Dr. Sheffield Hutton. Maria despised
Dr. Hutton. Her interviews with the man never went well and she resented the
way he presented science to the world as if it were his property, presented
from some pedestal on high, to be administered by priests or gods. His
condescending tone and patronizing voice had driven her to great lengths in
researching topics before interviewing him, but she had yet to feel she came
off looking good when talking to him. The man just felt evil. That he was the
President's Science Advisor was one of the scariest things about this
administration, Maria thought.

Maria nudged Zack, who had moved to sit next to
her. "Look who's on board," she whispered. "Sheffield Hutton the third."

Zack leaned across her to look toward the back
of the plane. "Oh, hell," he muttered.

Highway 82 West, Greenwood, Mississippi, An
ATM Machine

Andy inserted his bank card and input his
password. Thanking his lucky stars his bank was part of a larger network and
not just a small local one, he was able to withdraw the maximum amount for the
day. He walked over to Lisanne's car while swearing under his breath.

She heard him approach and started talking
preemptively. "Look, like I said before, nobody told me to think of all the
practicalities. I'll start thinking of them now, I promise. I didn't really
think about your money. We had all my money and I just didn't
think
,
okay?"

Andy looked up suddenly from counting the money
in his hand and stared at her intently. "What do you mean we have 'all your
money'?"

"Just what I said. I cleared out my bank account
when I left town," Lisanne said smugly.

"In cash? You're just carrying it around in cash
with you?" Andy asked incredulously.

"Well, sure," Lisanne said haltingly. "What else
was I going to do with it? Put it in a bank? I just got through taking it
out
of a bank because the bank was going to get blown to smithereens! I had to take
it with me. I figured we'd need to buy stuff along the way and maybe supplies
for wherever we ended up going," her final words ending on a defensive note.